Thousands To Change Schools

Administrators Unveil School Attendance Zones

March 25, 1989|By SEAN SOMERVILLE Staff Writer

NEWPORT NEWS — Proposed changes in school attendance zones would ripple through the city, transferring thousands of students to different schools. Administrators who unveiled the plan Friday said it will:

* Pull students from several existing schools to fill two new middle schools.

* Eliminate schools that combine kindergarten through second grade students with sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

* Bus more than 2,000 elementary and middle school student fewer miles than they currently travel.

* Alter school attendance zones for all middle schools and most elementary schools. High schools will not be rezoned this year.

In a press conference to announce the proposed zones, school officials said that 1,000 students currently assigned to four existing middle schools will be assigned to Green Oaks Middle School. Until the school at McLawhorne Drive at Jefferson Avenue is completed in the fall of 1991, students in the new zone will attend Hines Middle School.

The zone for Green Oaks, the school's temporary name, includes: Dozier students who live in Richneck, Colony Pines, Windsor Great Park; Reservoir students who live off Richneck Road; several Hines students who live between the C&O railroad tracks and the York County line; Hines students from the southeast part of the city; and Huntington students who live below 25th street and between Marshall and Roanoke avenues.

The middle school behind the school administration building, which is temporarily named Roys Lane, would take 1,000 students from five schools next fall: Dozier students living in Warwick Lawns; Carver students who live below Colony Road; Dunbar-Erwin students living between the C&O railroad tracks and the James River above Copeland Lane; many of the Hines Middle School students between the railroad tracks and the Warwick River above Fishers Creek and Middlesex Road.

Programs for talented and gifted children would be centered at Roys Lane and Green Oaks in addition to their current sites.

Maps of the proposed zones were not available Friday. Hearings on the proposed zones will be held in the school administration building next to Todd Stadium April 12 at 7 p.m. and April 19 at 9 a.m.